CARTHAGE. First Punic War. Circa 264-241 BC. Trishekel (Silver, 32 mm, 23.92 g, 12 h), circa 255-251. Head of Tanit to left, wearing wreath of grain ears, triple-pendant earring and necklace. Rev. Horse standing right; above, solar disc supported by two uraeus serpents. H. R. Baldus: Unerkannte Reflexe der römischen Nordafrika-Expedition von 256/255 v. Chr. in der karthagischen Münzprägung, in: Chiron 12 (1982), p. 184-6 (for date) and pl. 1, 7 (same dies). CNP 42. Jenkins && Lewis pl. 27, 4 (same dies). MAA 38. SNG Copenhagen -. Extremely rare, one of a very few known examples. Somewhat rough and with minor corrosion, otherwise, good very fine.


The silver trishekels from Carthage are among the rarest and most impressive of all Carthaginian coins. They were minted during the First Punic War (264-241 BC), a conflict between the North African metropolis and the rising power of Rome. This nearly quarter-century-long struggle, which primarily focused on control of Sicily, saw the fortunes of war shift back and forth. Rome's eventual victory - and its shameless annexation of Sardinia and Corsica from Carthage during a time of crisis, when the latter was fighting for survival in the Mercenary War (241–238/7 BC) - laid the groundwork for Carthaginian revisionist policies. These in turn contributed to the outbreak of the Second Punic War (218–201 BCE), a conflict that would escalate into a Mediterranean ‘world war’.

In an article that has unfortunately largely been overlooked in English-speaking scholarship, H. R. Baldus demonstrated in 1982 that the trishekels date to the period following the African campaign of Marcus Atilius Regulus (256-255 BC), which, after initial successes, ended in the crushing defeat at the Battle of Tunes (also called the Battle of Bagradas). Furthermore, these large coins are not hexadrachms, as often claimed, but are clearly trishekels.